Dust in Iran and Turkmenistan

This image was captured on January 20, 2007 by the MODIS on the Aqua satellite. It shows a large plume of dust that blew across the border into Turkmenistan from Iran. In this image, the dust appears as plume that pushes out of Iran in a counter-clockwise direction.

Toward the north, the plume appears as a series of arcs cutting across the plume's main trajectory. To the east, a thinner, fainter plume mimics the counter-clockwise movement of the main dust plume. The small beige dots in southern Turkmenistan are likely settlements.